My nieces invited me to their quilting retreat which I attended earlier this week. It was only about a 2h drive via the $$$407$$$.
On the way there I stopped for gas at an ESSO station hoping to use PC points at the pump but I was informed over the speaker that I had to go inside and they wouldn't do the PC points things. They did ask for a deposit so I put $60 on my card, then went out and pumped $38 of gas. The guy came out with my receipts and I drove off (more about this later).
The retreat house is in a very upscale enclave of homes just inside Wellesley township - and only a few km west of Heidelberg. Counting all the finished areas of the house I would say it's 6000 square feet.
Among the 5 bedrooms there are 12 beds which can accommodate 14 people. I shared the 'master bedroom' (4 twin beds) with my nieces, Ana and Rosa. There was a huge ensuite bath attached which included a big soaker tub. Each bed had a bed warmer. Towels were nice and fluffy. Most amenities were provided. Very chi chi poo poo.
Downstairs was our work area. 14 six-foot tables and a big ironing station.
There was a kitchen down there as well with full-size fridge, dishwasher and microwave.
I got a lot done; finishing most of the ornate border of The Light of Winter. Just need to fill in the centres of the pink flowers.
I got two checkerboard pieces sewn and quilted onto the batting - ready to make them into project bags.
The two colourways are in the fabric line. I'll use the companion fabric for the lining.
I also started the half square triangles for the little Black Eyed Susan mini quilt.
One of the attendees, Reg, gave me a strip of the nifty 1/4" guide tape which made sewing 1/4" away from the diagonal MUCH easier. I didn't have to painstakingly draw a line on each of the 72 - 1.5" squares. I just lined up the top tip of the diamond with the left side of my 1/4" presser foot and aligned the bottom of the diamond with the line to the left of the centre red line.
The seam guide tape made chain-piecing was very easy.
I also got all the wool felt bits cut out for the wool felt appliqué Bowl Fillers - a kit I had purchased ages ago at Quilter's Cupboard. A registered massage therapist was hired to massage any retreaters so desiring. I had a one-hour deep tissue massage yesterday morning before packing up and heading out. Such a luxury...
This morning, I finished all the pinwheels for the mini quilt.
Those pinwheels only measure 2 1/2" square! The individual squares before making them HSTs were 1 1/2" square. Thank goodness Reg loaned me her nifty Slotted Trimmer ruler. This was the one with 1/2" gradations and there is another with 1" gradations.
Once the HSTs are cut, they don't need to be opened and pressed. Simply line the seam line on the triangle up with the trimmer and trim, the slots in the sides are for trimming the dog ears. So cool!
I'm really glad I took a photo of the sample at Hobby House.
as the fabric description in the pattern didn't exactly match the fabric in the kit.
I then cut and labelled the rest of the pieces and sewed everything together. I learned to nest the seams when joining pinwheels which made aligning the seams much easier.
I'm taking a break from this and will read what the next steps are - probably cutting out the felt pieces. I'll use the freezer paper but this time I'll reverse the pattern so my elements face the right way.
Here's a recap of the list of projects I planned to take to the retreat:
This is a partial list of what I planned to take to work on at the retreat:
- amigurumi zebra kit (didn't take it)
- Mystical Lanterns crochet project (15 lanterns completed) √
- light interfacing for drawing 2.5" grid for more checkerboard project bags √
- knitting - helix sock, more little bears (didn't work on them)
- The Light of Winter cross-stitch project √
- my 'stealth' small for the guild's competition in June √
- my birthday start project (I may start it early) (didn't take it)
- 2 wool felt appliqué projects to cut out (probably not do any sewing) √
- Smitten cross-stitch project (didn't work on it)
About my ESSO experience - it's 4 days later and the 'deposit' has been removed from my transactions but the $38 charge of gas I did buy hasn't appeared. Did I get a free fill-up? Time will tell.
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